Picture Books - Let Kids Be Free to Read!

Ever since the New York Times ran an article last October about the fading in importance of picture books in young children's lives, the blogosphere has been talking about the craziness of the premise.  The latest thoughtful post comes from my sister blogger in Australia, Susan, who blogs at the always fabulous Book Chook. She argues for the importance of picture books for preschoolers as well as kids well beyond the preschool years. Letting kids choose their reading is anathema to some parents and even some library staffers (WHAT?!?!)

That concept of "free reading" that many of us champion is one most notably advocated by Stephen Krasheen. He wrote a short article in SLJ in 2006 that explores the concept and importance based on his longer book, The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research published by Libraries Unlimited in 2004. Boiling it down to beyond basic and in Marge-speak, the concept is that all reading for pleasure is good reading and helps builds kids vocabulary, comprehension and reading skills .  When kids have a choice in selecting what they want to read, their interest and excitement in the act of reading becomes more sustained.

Picture books aren't just for little kids.  They are great reads for older kids as well.  I like to think of them as the first graphic novels that children are exposed to.  They have a visual as well as literacy component that blends together into a coherent whole. More complex books like ones by Patricia Polacco, Chris Van Allsburg, Emily McCully, Bill Peet, Lane Smith, David Wiesner and Jon Scieszka and many others beg to be shared with second, third and even fourth graders.

How can we help kids - and parents - make that transition to free them to use these great books?  Creating spaces in older fiction collections and cataloging more complex picture books into those collections is one way - whether by labeling or creating a special section of "Illustrated Fiction" - this brings these picture books to the attention and into the hands of older readers. And by locating them in  the collections for older kids, we give an implied boost to their worthiness to be considered and selected by older browsers .

Featuring these books in handselling and reader's advisory on a daily basis is also a great way to promote them to older readers.  Include one of these picture books among the fiction and non-fiction in booktalks at schools or a few in packs of books that you pull for schools and classrooms of older students. And when you have programs with older kids, include these in your book discussions and mini-promotions.

All these options and paths to worthy books will help you free the kids, the parents, teachers, staffers ...and you!

Image: 'Free Daddy and His Little Shadow Girls+at+The+Skate+Park+Creative+Commons'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00/179279964

Surefire Storytelling Hits for One World, Many Stories

A comment on my last post asked about ideas for good multicultural stories to use with this year's CLSP (Cooperative Summer Library Program) theme, One World, Many Stories. Here are a few that I love with sources if I could track them back (being a storyteller for twenty-five years has it's drawbacks!). Give them a try.

Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock (Africa)- Eric Kimmel
Buy a spider glove puppet. Gather your jungle animals and a blanket or rug that is green and mossy looking. You play Anansi/Narrator and tell the story while the kids play the jungle animals part. The rest of the kids chant the magic words, “Isn’t that a strange-looking, moss-covered rock?”.  There are plenty of Anansi stories to share from many folklore collections..I have five or six in my storybag but this remains a favorite.

Wise Monkey Tale (Phillipines) - Guilio Maestro
Using a monkey puppet and other jungle animals, tell the story as Monkey/Narrator with kids as animals. Use a piece of rope in a circle to represent the hole and a construction paper banana leaf. Have the audience chant the banana leaf inscription: “If very wise you wish to be, come on down, wait and see!”

Fat Cat (Norway) - Jack Kent (there is also a version in print from Margaret Read McDonald)
Tie a flat sheet around yourself (or a helpful adult volunteer) like a huge bib. Have the kids play the eatees. As you chomp each one, the kids hide under the sheet. The audience chants “And now I’m going to eat you!”. You can use the same technique for the story of “The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly”

The Turnip  - (Russian) Traditional
Tie a rope to a door (important note: make it tight!). Have kids play part (use scarves, ears, headbands, masks) and tug rope as you narrate. Audience chants “And they pushed and they pulled and they pulled and they pushed”. When the time comes for the turnips appearance, bring out a turnip from behind a screen.

Bear and the Seven Kids - (Poland)  Traditional 
I've lost the original source beyond hearing it from another storyteller 20 years ago!  However, you can find it as the "Wolf and Seven Kids" and other variants in folktale collections. I use nesting dolls and pretend to forget how many kids are in the story and then reveal them one by one in the intro.  Great audience particiaption tale!

Tiger's Minister (Burma) - Various; teller Janice Harrington has this on CD/tape
A tiger tests a boar, a monkey and a rabbit to determine who should be his new minister by breathing on each one in turn and asking, "Is my breath fair or foul?". Of course it is disguting and the first two animals try truth, than flattery and are eaten. The rabbit claims, with a twitchy nose, that he "can't smell anything one way or the other" and becomes the minister (and ever after rabbits have twitched their noses and now you know why!)

Roly Poly Rice Ball - (Japan) - Margaret Read McDonald's Twenty Tellable Tales
Crab Eyes - (Caribbean) - Margaret Read McDonald's Twenty Tellable Tales
Just a pleasure to tell straight without props. McDonald does a masterful job at breaking down the telling and adding emphasis to help even novice tellers deliver the story like a pro!

The Mosquito (unsure of country of origin) - Anne Pellowski's The Story Vine
Anne Pellowski's books are chockfull of great stories from many cultures perfect for storytelling. This string story has excellent instructions/illustrations and is worth the time it takes to learn. This is perfect for school visits and produces "big-eyed" results each time for all ages!

I also have used Once Upon a Hodja (long out of print, that has some good Middle Eastern Nasrudin stories (in turns wise, foolish, a trickster and a storyteller) and Caroline Peterson books for additional ideas.

What other good stories do you have?


Illustration from 2011 CLSP Manual. Images are copyrighted. Contact the CSLP for more information

Using Storytelling with Small Groups

I did a storytelling workshop this week on the "One World, Many Stories" SLP theme with librarians from five systems in the southern part of the state.  I wanted to give everyone tips on finding sources for stories, tips on telling and some "can't miss" stories from a few different countries to put in their story bags.

One of the participants blogged later that that while there was good information on handling a beaucoup big crowd, it wasn't very "real-world" helpful for librarians who work with small numbers of kids in storytime - ten or less; or more typically three to five kids, who can be very passive without a crowd to rev them up.  So right!  I skipped that part completely!  So, as a  mea culpa, here are a few tips I use that help when bringing storytelling into storytimes with teeny crowds!

I make it a point in my storytimes to tell a story each and every week.  I believe strongly that kids need more than books and props to excite their imagination.  Stories help them picture the tale on their own.  Magic happens with the use of storytelling no matter how large or how small the crowd. In my years of storytimes, I have kept this practice up whether I have two kids or thirty two and it has always worked.

Although I have some large-cover-your-whole-arm puppets, I don't use these in the intimate atmosphere of storytimes.  I usually tell my stories without puppets or props, letting the magic of the words and the plot carry the tale. That being said, I am also one to make a splash before the story is started to get the kids excited about a form of listening that many of them don't have alot of experience with!

My favorite intro is to put a small prop or puppet that relates to the story inside a bag that I bring out when it is time to tell the story. I reach inside the bag, feel around, do some "oohing" and "aahing" and "Hmmm, what could this be?" before I bring out the prop. This little teasing part gets the kids focused on the what is inside the bag and gets them excited. When the prop comes out, I say, "That reminds me of our story today" and off we go.

Other times I will bring along a finger puppet or two or three to small storytimes and let the kids play with them before or after the story to reinforce the story...or to let the kids engage in story play and re-imagining or telling the story themselves.  When kids are too shy or the group too small to even have them engage in that much play I do a few little retellings of scenes with the puppets and hope that the next week brings more participation.

Small group storytelling can be some of the most rewarding because the stories shared can be quieter and more focused.  Any other tips out there on sharing storytelling with small groups?

Image: 'Day 138' http://www.flickr.com/photos/38451115@N04/4218226857

Two Great Blogs That I Hope You Follow

Travis Jonkers has been creating great content at 100 Scope Notes for awhile now. He does great links, creates great fun and I always discover something new in his short succinct posts.

A new blog that is a must stop now for me (thanks Travis!) is Read.Connect.Watch. created by John Schumacher (otherwise known in the blogosphere and on Twitter as Mr. Schu). The blog posts book trailers as well as related media for children's literature titles.  There is a rich depth to this blog which will help create endless content for school and public librarians.

Image: 'Two friends!!'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/13937854@N00

Looking Out at the Great Job Market

Abby the Librarian has a wonderfully helpful post for people thinking about going to library school or in the midst of their graduate work.  In it she talks in a very practical way about what a person should consider and how to increase one's marketability.

I want to second her suggestions.  As a mentor for three new librarians on ALAConnect, it is the advice I give again and again.  Finding meaningful volunteer/internship work that relates to the field you want to enter is worth gold. 

It is an opportunity to get practical experience as well as suggest projects that can enhance a library's resources ("Would you like me to develop a booklist on read-alikes for Diary of a Wimpy Kid?"; "I could develop a little book of coupons to give out to families between storytime sessions that encourage them to return to the library in the interim ['Get a hug from the librarian'; '$.50 off your fines';  'Come in for a sticker and a personal book suggestion form your librarian']; "Would you like a resource list of books and websites for that program you are doing on organic gardening?"; "Would you like me to update/redesign that flyer?"). Library staffers just might take you up on it and you get golden experience that translates into a money job search.

We are in the midst of searching for a new children's librarian to join our team and Abby's post reads like a roadmap that all our top candidates seem to have followed.  Taking the extra time to learn, work and play in the stacks and among librarians makes job searchers more valuable to future employers.  And you know you all can do it!!

Image: 'Free 3D Business Men Marching Concept' http://www.flickr.com/photos/22177648@N06/2136948367

Three Favorite ALA Midwinter Moments

1. Meeting blogger Eva from Eva's Book Addiction and her Los Angeles Public library coworkers at a reception held for SLJ reviewers.  It was better than putting a name to a face - it was meeting a woman whose mind, words and thoughts I have admired.  I love it when the blogosphere and the real world mash up to bring us together.

2. Finding this Facebook post from Nancy McC, a colleague attending ALA "Overheard a local asking a conference center security person,  'Is there some type of librarian festival going on here?' When I said "Why yes, there is a librarian festival," he replied "Librarians are cool...reading is fundamental!" Seriously. Probably 22, looked like Wilt Chamberlain, complete with girlfriend.  I am so wanting to rename our conferences "Librarian Festivals"!!

3. Having a set of recommendations on creating more opportunities to participate virtually accepted by the ALSC board. The subcommittee I was involved in worked long and thoughtfully and wrestled with this and it was great to help create a roadmap for our path to that goal.

Oooooohhh! Aaaahhhhh! Gasp! Snort! Wowser!

There is nothing quite like being at the press conference at ALA Midwinter to hear the announcement of the Youth Media Awards.  That 60 minutes is packed with tension, expectation, murmers (and screams) of surprise or acclamation, standing ovations and, in that dark, dark, cavernous room, a knit brow or two, gratefully hidden from one's peers.  Today's announcements of, by my count 23, awards in San Diego were no exception.

There were expected, unexpected and wholly delightful surprises from each committee.  One of the book bloggers I follow was frankly surprised at some of the buzzworthy books in the kidslitosphere getting no recognition.  I am never surprised at that result.  We are all readers and all passionate, but let's face it, few of us approach the rigor of reading and discussion that goes into these ALA award level committees.  These groups live these books and the passionate give and take that occurs throughout the year as they make their way to final discussions and voting is simply extraordinary.  They take special care and I always put my faith in their decisions because I know how profoundly seriously they take their work.

Now it is time to read, re-read, acquire and booktalk these best books and media of our children's and teen literary world. How lucky we are to have this spotlight on a passion that brings such great material into the hands of our kids! Congratulations to all the committees for a job well done!

ALA Midwinter - Distinctly Un-Winterish

I hate to be so supremely shallow but I REALLY love ALA midwinters that meet in warmer climes.  This year we are gathering in San Diego. Going from 6F to 60F in a mere 4 hours is a real treat for this Wisconsin woman. If you have to be in meetings, meetings, meetings, at least be in a place with pleasant warmth and incredible views.

I am on the ALSC board in my third and final year.  We will be wrestling with some interesting stuff as always.  It is a great group of people and I look forward to not only the camaraderie but the debate. I'll be reporting out recommendations from a subcommittee I chaired on moving our ALSC committee work to a more virtual model. It will be great to see where this all goes.  And there will be time to attend the ALSC All-Committee meetings where I will peek at the work of so many of our member leaders.

Of course the exhibits will take up a chunk of time, looking at new titles and picking up a few ARCS to bring back to share with the team.  There will be plenty of friendships renewed, hallway conversations, drinks clinked at after hours get-togethers and talk about how we are struggling to do good with fewer resources.

On the last day there will be the always amazing ALA Media Awards press conference where we get to ooooh, aaah and gasp at the announcements of the ALSC, YALSA and Coretta Scott King Awards.  My colleagues on award committees are working hard this conference to discuss and vote on the winners. What will they present us with on Monday?

So here's to midwinter and librarians gathering where they work hard...and enjoy the sunshine harder!

Image: '~ The Real Action ~'   http://www.flickr.com/photos/13898329@N00/12494645

Last Ideas for the Year

I had a great time reading my RSS feeds today.  People must have been saving some of their best for last.  So for your edification, here are a few EOTY (End-of-the-Year) Awards to my faboo colleagues. Drop by and read them and watch your work change!

Best December Programming Creative Ideas Award:
Jen the Youth Services Librarian plays with her programs and gets great results!

Most Fun Run-up to Newbery Award Announcement Contest Award:
ALSC Blog links you to a fun survey that lets you choose your favorite among the 90 Newbery winners. Ooooh-aaaahhh!

Best Space Saving Solution That Really Works for Kids Award:
My pal Georgia Jones in her Come into Delight blog solves two problems at once: creating more shelf space and helping kids find their favorite series books with visual cues.

Best Thought-Provoking Whose in Charge of You Award:
The always fascinating Stephen's Lighthouse blog links us to Seth Godin with hints on how to boss ourselves better.

Comic Books Comic Books!

Ok, ok, so I know that they are now called graphic novels but really they are just the nickel, dime, twelve cent, fifteen cent (I could go on but I am already starting to get scared) comix of our callow youth.  We kids in the neighborhood traded copies of Superman, Batman, Archie, Little Lulu; Donald Duck; G.I. Joe and read and read and read them until they were tattered and torn.  Then we'd read them some more.

Our parents hated them but we were in love.  We could buy mini-spy cameras and sea monkeys and laugh at the silliness or thrill at the heroics of the costumed crusaders. We didn't have comix in the library when I was a kid.  Richer neighbor kids had to buy 'em and share 'em.

But in the seventies, something changed.  Charlie Brown got popular and books featuring his characters and other newspaper comic characters starting coming out and libraries - gasp- started buying them.  As a college student and young librarian I was a total comix hound and collector.  I also knew that Marvel and DC were publishing books of their characters and wanted them in the library too.  I couldn't get them through any of the book wholesalers we dealt with so I would drive two hours to my comix store and buy them there for the library.  They got cataloged into the 741.5s but at least we had 'em.

Fast forward twenty years and library jobbers starting stocking "graphic novels" - material illustrated like a comic and that also included manga and anime.  One of my favorite stories is when BWI started offering graphic novels a colleague at a nearby library almost had an apoplectic fit and threatened to withdraw her business since they were now stocking trash (um, I could argue trash on all sorts of titles and authors through the centuries). But many libraries embraced them and started separate graphic novel collections.

Now fast forward to December 2010 and there is a movement afoot to start a Comic and Graphic Novel interest group at ALA. I am all for it.  If you are an GN/Comix advocate and an ALA member, click on over to 8bitlibrary.com to read all about it and sign the petition.  It's a great way to get ourselves together and to support a format in libraries that speaks to all ages with eye-popping and thought provoking art and text.

Image: 'DC Hero Minifigs - Wave 4'   http://www.flickr.com/photos/86805026@N00/2564337011

Field Trip Fun

We have been seeing a decline in the frequency of class tours of the library over the last couple of years.  Certainly, economics have played a big part - when schools have many choices for their field trips but limited funding for the buses, the library often suffers.  After meetings with our school library media center colleagues, they expressed an interest in having all second graders come to the library for visits and that got us inspired to look at visits for all ages.

So we put our heads together to see if we could ratchet up our usual tour and make a trip to the library into an adventure!  Our first step was developing more age/interest specific content so fifth graders had an entirely different experience than preschoolers or early elementary aged kids.  Our second was committing ourselves to enthusiastic presentation of info that may be old to us but is new to the kids.

For preschoolers through early elementary kids, we focus on basic collections they use (print and non-print); book check-out, book return area and info desk and fun explanations of how a library works; how to get a library card; and how to use our huge boat facade (as a place to read!!).  We wrap this "business-as-usual" tour around a theme. 

This school year, for younger kids, we are using a search for Knuffle Bunny and Mo Willems' book as our theme.  First we read the book to the kids. Then we tell them our Knuffle Bunny stuffed animal is lost and needs to be found - by them.  As we share the story, colleagues are putting book character dolls at strategic points in the library that we want to highlight (see above).  The kids then join us as we find characters and describe collections and points of interest.  We have no luck finding Knuffle Bunny, so return to the program room where Knuffle Bunny is discovered hiding.  A few more stories shared and we are good to go! 

Part of the fun with younger kids is explaining how a library really works.  Here is the way we do it:

We  ask the kids who the books belong to (the librarians?  Nooooooo; the library? Noooooo; You?  YESSSSS!!!!)  The books belong to and are shared by all the kids and grownups in the community!  Then we tell the kids them the library is like a house that the books live in. But books love to visit with kids at their house! With a library card, children can take home materials for a nice visit. And, just like a visit from a friend (we all know that visiting friends don't stay forever), the books have to return home to the library after a few weeks so they can visit with other children. This simple explanation hits home with kids and helps them see how a library works.

For first and second graders I am tempted to use John Perry's The Book That Eats People as the shared story and play with the concept that books aren't dangerous. Or maybe Eric Kimme's Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock  - we could search for stuffed animals that might also live in the village. Hmmm or.....?????  Any ideas out there for a good focusing book for first and second graders that would lend itself to field trip fun?

For older kids, we show a bit of the OPAC; the non-fiction and fiction. We talk about how a non-fiction collection is arranged very much like a grocery store - like thing is next to like thing.  And just like they may know words in a world language (Hola!), our language is Dewey and that's how we know what all those numbers mean.  The groups get a choice of a culminating activity pre-chosen by their teacher/leader activity - a chance to be cataloged and shelved (complete with barcode and a dewey number based on their interest); fiction booktalks; an easy experiment; some spine poetry; playing Book Bingo; or doing a easy origamil keepsake.

For our teens, we are in great shape because we have tied in mini-tours of the Teen area with middle school groups coming in to learn how to do research for projects for National History Day competition.  We see a large percentage of middle school kids on these visits and it is a golden opportunity to familiarize them with that area. It is a win-win situation.

We have been test running a few of the new field trips prior to heavy advertising after the first of the year.  Here's hoping for good results!
Image: 'Tour ->' http://www.flickr.com/photos/15923063@N00/298346278

Re-Aligning the Ship of State

We have been undergoing some interesting changes lately.  One of our co-workers, The Hedgehog Librarian, went off to academic libraryland so we been dividing out desk times, selection responsibilities and the myriad little pieces that go into wrapping up a colleague's time with us.  Amidst all the good-byes and the funny feelings of not-quite-completeness, we are also looking at other changes that are keeping us big-eyed.

When I came on board (just two years ago), the place was like a ship on storm-tossed waters.  The atmosphere in the public areas felt like free-for-all-free-fall. There didn't seem to be alot of procedures or limits on what we were able to realistically offer to our public so we did alot of everything - but often without focus.  Over time, we used technology to ease our way; re-examined and re-thought our services and collections and began to shift our focus in a way that helps us manage the physical space to make it inviting and a little more sane. Changes big and small are now suggested all the time by our able crew and we make progress each month in making a great space better.

Lately I have asked my colleagues to step up the pace of change.  They have really gotten on board and we are creating some exciting changes on our ship.

What's ahead?

• Creating hands-on pre-literacy activity areas for preschoolers around the department
• Launching an initiative to encourage parents to read at least 1000 books to their preschoolers before kindergarten
• Reducing in-house programs for school-agers and doing more outreach programs to that age group.
• Increasing the number of outreach visits at literacy fairs, school parent nights and other venues where parents gather while reducing the frequency of preschool outreach visits slightly to accomodate offering services to a wider age range.
• Creating "field trip adventures" rather than tours that make a class trip to the library the best visit in town. The content is specially targeted to specific age levels of the kids.
• Networking and creating more partnerships with our schools and community organizations to create great programs and services
• Streamlining our workflow to create more opportunities for creative thinking and idea generation.
• Revamping our summer reading program to create a simpler experience and one that recognizes that libraries are more than just  reading - they are about checking out materials; attending free programs; and a place for support of writing and other literacy activities.
• Re-imaginging and remodeling our physical space to remove a much-beloved but non-ADA compliant and unsafe boat facade and replacing it with a homage to our beautiful Mississippi River and bluff country.

Some of these changes have been/are welcomed by our patrons, some less popular.  Navigating through the reactions to these changes is probably our toughest challenge as a staff.  It's hard to tell a teacher of one age group that we have to reduce a service in order to offer services to other ages as well; or that our new adventure field trips replace a provider's routine expectations of a traditional storytime; or that we are limiting the number of seasonal books so everyone has a chance to enjoy a winter book.  On the other hand, it's easy to accept the grins of kids who experience the new field trips; listen to the excitement of our school colleagues when they hear about our Dr. Seuss presentation or our gross-out book talk; or accept the praise of families who feel more welcomed in the calmer atmosphere of the room.

I am lucky to be working with willing colleagues who are brave enough to step up to a change (or twenty) in course.  It might be awhile before we hit calm water but the crew is ready to play.  I hope to blog a little more in-depth about some of our initiatives over the next few months - although I have been quiet lately and don't know if this is one of those empty promises!  And I'll share the reactions of our public as we sail between the shoals of change.  It is a good time to be aboard!

Image: 'Ship'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/31805905@N00/35838005

Wicked Funny

From our friends at xkcd via LIS News, a hilarious cartoon:

Dewey...or Don't We?

I have been pretty excited to see libraries talking about and looking into adapting BISAC to use with non-fiction classification.  My buddy Ken Hall over at Fond du Lac Public Library is putting this into play at his library (and has a nice explanation here).  What calls to me about this system is that it still maintains subject organization but also invites the art of browsing to sing out as well.

Many, many years ago, at my former job, my visionary director Jack Fry and I concocted a heretical new  Dewey/Cuttering system that vastly simplified our kids NF collection and was easy to use. Although not quite as simple as the bookstore's BISAC, it incorporated the concept that kids are not necessarily looking for a specific book by a specific author in a subject section but rather books in general about the subject they are interested in.

I had watched for years as kids, parents and A+ student shelvers struggled to find and get the books they were looking for.  And as a borderline dyslexic, I had my own nightmares with transposed numbers in the great forest of Dewey's decimals.

So we tried to use no decimals at all or at very most, when push came to shove, one number beyond the decimal.  Rather than using the cutter to designate the author's last name, in sections where the decimals had been decimated (bwa-ha-ha-ha), we used a generic letter to separate types of books in a subject.  That reads like Greek to me so let me give a couple of examples.

Baseball's Dewey Decimal (DD) number is 796.357; football is 796.332; basketball is 796.323. So we designated sports books as 796.3 and put all baseball books as 796.3 B (B=baseball); football books as 796.3 F (F=football); all basketball books as 796.3 C (C= "court" sports); soccer as 796.3 S, etc. We chose not to include an author's name in the spine label, just subject of the book. These collections were totally browse-worthy.

Same in mammal books in the notorious 599.7, 599.6, 599.3 sections. Bears would be 599.7 B, big cats 599.7 F (feline), and onward.  We kept the same basic Dewey number but just gathered all books on bears into one designated number/letter and let the kids browse. We chose this formula in any section of the collection that had great long Dewey strings (crafts and animals spring to mind...we were never ever brave enough to tackle 398's. I'm afraid..they defeated me). We didn't assign the collection letter willy-nilly - we chose letters that matched the DD designation.  We just truncated it and translated it to be user-friendly.

Kids loved it, parents loved it, shelvers worshipped at our feet.  I always hoped this would catch on somewhere but catalogers were universally horrified and condemnatory and they control how we present stuff to our public (unless you were lucky like me to have a visionary director who said go for it and control of the cataloging...yes, I was cataloger AND children's librarian!). I always thought it was a shame.  It made me think about whether we listen hard enough in libraries to the folks who work with kids and know gobs more than people think we do (but that's another whole 800 posts worth!)

As to whether kids can handle more complex DD numbering in later years if not exposed or taught DD early? I have a hunch they can. Someone did a study years ago saying that the average reading level of a catalog was 6th grade and I figure decimals as an everyday skill is out there in upper elementary grades as it is..a time when kids are aging out into the wild blue yonder of the adult collection for their research. It's a bit like not teaching geometry until our minds can handle that level of mathematical visualization. It's not for most 4th graders.

It has always struck me as trez bizarre that while we want to organize the info for ease of use, we continue to make it very difficult for the average Joe and Jill to find the darn stuff. I am thrillingly happy that brave souls in libraries are finally seeing BISAC as the way to a future that honors organization but does it in a language that the general public is familiar with (although I must admit I do love making the analogy with kids on class visits that Dewey is just MY world language rather than Spanish or Japanese or German!).

I am all for making libraries easy to use so that we can follow one of my most favorite of Ranganathan's Rules: "Save the time of the reader"!

Image: '09-may-20'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/91255327@N00/3565110921

Librarian Rock Stars...Why Not?

David Lee King started the discussion; Andy Woodworth continued it at Agnostic, Maybe; and Nancy Dowd at The 'M' Word - Marketing Libraries adds a marketing perspective.  They are all talking about highlighting the real people behind the books and buildings - library staffers who make our magic happen.  Getting staff into the limelight and recognizing their substantial contributions to innovation, great service and great ideas is a wonderful way to connect to our communities.


In a reply to Andy's thoughtful post that was re-posted at LIS News I stated:
"I think librarians have suffered long enough in being the "behind-the-scenes" folks. Let us put faces and rock star status on all the champions of literacy, information and free access for all. I've seen it enough times in children's work - sometimes being that Pied Piper of books and info leverages more doors opening to do good library work than pretending it's just buildings and collections that make the library great. Visionary, enthusiastic, creative, idea-filled committed library workers are THE rock stars and DO make libraries great for the community. I have a secret thrill each and every time I see a librarian celebrated and/or noted as newsworthy. Librarians rock!"

I've been thinking alot about this issue since I got the call two months ago with the surprise news that I would be receiving the WI Librarian of the Year award.  I've always considered myself a working grunt. I do the very best I can for my patrons. They are the most important people in my library work formula. But because I love them up with great service and programs, by the gods and goddesses, they love me right back and it translates into massive support for new ideas, fundraising and volunteerism. I, like many of my children's and teen librarian colleagues, get to be a "rock star" with the kids and parents because they see the face behind the building and collections. We rock our little world and it makes coming to work every day a little more special.

The award came with a different "rock star" status that has surprised me and made me think alot about our place in the larger library community. I was interviewed along with a collegue from the award winning Library of the Year on state-wide public radio - and we weren't being asked, "Why did we receive this award", but substantive questions about the state of all types of libraries and libraries' future viability. And the call-ins to that show!  Oh my gosh, people loved their libraries...and very specifically, LOVED THEIR LIBRARIANS!! And I didn't hesitate to say in that forum that folks in each community bond with their library staffers and take great pride in the work they do.

So let's not hide our lights under bushel baskets.  Do celebrate each other in libraries - our expertise, talents, innovations and dedication. We are all -each day, in all of our libraries - Librarians of the Year. So let's rock on!

Image: 'Alma Nativa'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/11229881@N05/2659070334